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SPEECH 


Or 


WILLIAM  S.  HARRIS, 

OF    CABA.RRUS, 

Delivered  in  the  House  of  Commons,  in  the  Committee  of  the 
Whole,  on  the  _B  ill  to  call  a  Convention,  January  11,  1861. 


I  understand,  Mr.  Chairman,  the  original  bill  reported  from 
the  Committee  on  Federal  Relations,  the  Resolutions  of  the 
Minority  of  that  Committee,  offered  by  the  gentleman  from 
Alamance,  (Mr.  Mebane,)  and  the  substitute  introduced  by  the 
gentleman  from  New  Hanover,  (Mr.  Person,)  to  be  the  subject- 
matter  under  discussion.  Without  trespassing  upon  the  time  of 
the  House,  I  desire  to  submit,  briefly,  some  views  which  I  enter- 
tain on  this  all-absorbing  subject.  The  issue  of  the  crisis  that 
now  looms  up  before  the  country,  is  unspeakably  momentous, 
and  it  becomes  the  obvious  duty  of  every  representative  in  this 
Legislature,  as  well  as  every  citizen  ofthe  State,  to  address  his 
mind  and  earnest  thoughts,  to  some  practical  plan  of  solving 
this  amazing  problem.  I  promise  the  House,  Sir,  that  what  I 
have  to  say  in  taking  my  position  on  this  question,  shall  be 
uttered  in  few  but  earnest  words.  I  announce  in  my  place 
here,  Sir,  that  it  is  my  settled  purpose  to  act  with  the  view  to  an 
adjustment  of  this  exciting  and  angry  controversy,  now  and 
forever.  Henceforward  I  desire  to  keep  no  word  of  promise  to 
our  ear  that  shall  be  broken  to  our  hope.  But  I  believe,  Sir, 
'"that  peace  hath  its  triumphs  no  less  than  war,"  and  in  that 
spirit  I  have  sought  fairly  to  try  and  to  exhaust  every  constitv 
tional  remedy  before  the  Old  North  State  should  be  precipitated 


upon  the  thick  bosses  of  revolution  and  disunion.  Although 
my  hopes  of  the  perpetuity  of  the  Union  of  these  States,  amid 
the  discordant  elements  that  now  cluster  around  it,  have  de- 
clined, yet  those  which  remain  are  like  the  lessening  leaves 
of  the  Sybil,  still  cherished  and  increased  in  value. 

When  truth  and  justice  permit,  I  am  disposed  to  look  on  the 
bright  side  of  human  affairs ;  and  in  illustration  of  this  peculiar 
feeling,  I  remember  an  interesting  incident  which  is  said  to 
have  occurred  in  the  darkest  period  of  the  revolution,  after  the 
defeat  of  Gen.  Gates,  at  Camden,  S.  C,  when  Gen.  Greene 
took  command  of  the  army  of  the  South.  As  the  story  goes, 
a  hopeful  and  gallant  soldier  of  Scotch  ancestry,  in  the  western 
part  of  South  Carolina,  was  noticed  by  Gen.  Greene,  near  his 
marquee,  on  a  cold  frosty  morning,  treading  his  way  through 
snow  and  ice,  leaving*  his  tracks  stained  with  the  blood  that 
flowed  from  his  bare  feet.  That  distinguished  and  compassion- 
ate General  kindly  accosted  him  and  remarked  : 

"My  poor  fellow,  I  am  sorry  for  you." 

The  bright  faced,  but^  suffering  soldier,  pleased  with  the 
notice  and  sympathy  of  his  General,  cheerily  replied,  "I  dinna 
ken,  Gineral,  they  tell^me  we  gwine  have  a  fight  'fore  long,  and 
then  I'll  git  a  pair  o'  shoes." 

The  extremity  of  hope  in  the  present  crisis  is  not  much  un- 
like that  of  the  humble,  but  true-hearted  soldier.  The  fight  in 
that  contest  was  for  liberty,  the  fight  in  the  present  contest  is  over 
the  body  and  being  of  the  Republic,  whose  foundations  were 
then  laid  and  cemented  in  the  blood  of  the  noblest  band  of  pa- 
triots the  world  ever  knew.  And  if  this  issue  cannot  be  pre- 
vented or  adjusted,  this  experiment  of  self-government  will  have 
ended,  before  the  last  soldiers  of  the  revolution  shall  have 
gone  to  their  long  sleep  in  the  grave.  But,  however  melan- 
choly as  to  them  in  the  brief  period  of  their  remaining  pil- 
grimage, the  terrible  consequences  of  this  catastrophe  must  fall 
chiefly  on  us,  who  are  actors  upon  the  stage,  in  the  clay  and 
generation  in  which  we  live — actors  for  ourselves  and  those  who 
are  to  come  after  us.  In  this  view,  Sir,  it  becomes  the  most 
^overwhelmingly  important  inquiry  that  can  possibly  occur  to 
any  rational  mind  :  How  can  this  state  of  things  be  prevented 
or  arrested?     Is  there  no  hope  that  Ave  may  yet  be  spared  this 


gloomy  voyage  in  a  broken  and  dismantled  Ship  of  State  upon 
what  is,  doubtless,  so  far  as  human  vision  can  foresee,  a  "  shore- 
less, sailless,  waveless,  tideless  ocean?" 

The  government  was  formed  in  a  spirit  of  compromise.  The 
old  articles  of  confederation,  when  they  were  found  to  be  but  a 
rope  of  sand,  gave  way  to  the  more  perfect  form  of  government 
under  the  constitution,  and  its  provisions  were  then  deemed  ample 
for  our  protection.  But  Massachusetts  had  then  not  long  ceased 
to  burn  witches  and  to  advertise  runaway  negroes,  crimes  which 
she  doubtless  places  upon  her  calendar  of  the  present  day  as  of 
equal  turpitude.  Appropriate,  Sir,  at  this  point  in  what  I  have 
to  say,  I  beg  leave  to  read  from  an  old  newspaper,  an  instructive 
relic  of  other  days,  which  I  happen  to  have  in  my  possession, 
entitled  the  "Boston  Post  Boy  and  Advertiser,'1''  published  in 
Boston,  and  dated  December  12,  1763,  little  less  than  one  hun- 
dred years  ago.     In  it  I  find  this  singular  advertisement : 

"To  be  sold,  a  Strang  Active  and  Healthy  Negro  Fellow,  about  17  Years 
old,  fit  for  Town  or  Country  Employment.     Enquire  of  the  Printers." 

Does  not  this  show  what  a  wondrous  change  has  come  over 
the  spirit  of  Massachusetts  dreams  ?  Under  the  severe  suffer- 
ing of  the  present  time,  it  is  possible,  though  not  probable,  that 
her  returning  reason  may  yet  doom  to  just  vengeance  the  necro- 
mancers of  wicked  and  terrible  mischief,  her  Wilsons,  and  Gar- 
risons, and  Sumners,  and  Phillipses.  Extremes  of  folly  and  jus- 
tice in  the  history  of  nations  sometimes  meet.  The  spirit  that  gave 
Robespiere  triumph,  gave  Robespiere  death.  When  the  final 
hour  of  retribution  comes,  from  deceived  and  down-trodden 
humanity,  short  indeed  ever  has  been  the  journey  of  false 
philanthropists  or  fools  from  the  prison  to  the  grave. 

The  admitted  dangers  that  now  surround  our  institutions 
should  prompt  us  all  to  unite  on  a  common  platform  and  exhaust 
the  last  constitutional  remedy.  But,  Sir,  I  am  not  wedded  to 
any  particular  plan.  I  will  stand  on  any  platform  that  looks  to 
permanent  and  honorable  adjustment.  I  hesitate  not  to  declare 
that  I  am  utterly  opposed  to  separate  secession,  and  still  greatly 
prefer  the  plan  indicated  by  the  resolutions  which  I  had  the 
honor  to  introduce  early  in  the  session,  and  now  embodied  in 
the  resolutions  offered  by  the  gentleman  from  Alamance.  They 
contemplate  a  Convention  of  nil  the  States  with  a  view  to  re- 


dress  end  ve-construction  in  accordance  with  the  5th  Article  of 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  I  know  that  it  is  alleg- 
ed that  two-thirds  of  the  States  will  not  apply,  and,  therefore, 
that  is  not  now  practicable,  but,  Sir,  it  is  written  in  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  country  and  ought  to  be  spoken  out  with  the 
spirit  of  freemen. 

And  then,  Sir,  if  all  these  steps  fail  to  save  the  Union  of  the 
States,  the  cause  of  our  section,  unprejudiced  by  premature  ac- 
tion, and  capable  of  the  noblest  defences,  will  stand  justified 
before  God  and  the  world.  Is  it  too  late  to  try  this  remedy? 
Perhaps  it  may  be,  but  South  Carolina  is  conservative  and 
well-ordered  in  her  State  Government,  and  now  has  the  power 
to  halt  for  counsel  and  co-operation,  as  well  as  the  undoubted 
courage  to  do  and  to  dare.  But,  Sir,  in  the  event  it  should  not 
be  the  pleasure  of  this  Legislature  to  call  for  a  National  Con- 
vention, I  announce  my  purpose  to  vote  for  a  Convention  ©f  the 
people,  in  order  to  place  North  Carolina  in  a  condition  to  co- 
operate with  her  Southern  sister  States,  and  in  that  form  inter- 
pose her  cautious  wisdom  to  avert  the  unnatural  struggle.  If 
you  fail  now  to  exert  the  conservative  power  of  North  Carolina, 
and  a  collision  of  arms  should  ensue,  the  natural  sympathy  of 
your  people  will  make  them  flock  to  the  Palmetto  Standard 
with  the  swiftness  of  the  warhorse  to  battle.  Nor  will  they  be 
intimidated,  Sir,  by  the  declaration  that  South  Carolina  will 
be  overcome  in  the  unequal  strife.  They  know,  Sir,  that  no 
people  have  ever  been  finally  subjugated  who  had  the  sinews  of 
war,  who  had  the  spirit  of  a  just  cause  and  bread  to  feed  their 
armies.  But  admit,  Sir,  for  a  moment  that  South  Carolina  may 
be  overcome,  her  fair  fields  desolated,  her  cities  destroyed,  her 
people  conquered,  will  not  the  same  hands  that  bind  the  yoke 
of  sectional  oppression  upon  her  neck,  fasten  it  upon  your  neck 
and  upon  the  neck  of  every  citizen  of  North  Carolina  ?  What, 
then,  will  be  left  for  us,  Sir,  of  national  liberty,  to  live  or  to 
hope  for  ?  Nothing,  Sir,  save  to  reap,  to  our  heart's  content, 
"the  oppressor's  scorn  and  the  proud  man's  contumely." 

But,  Sir,  we  are  bound  up  in  the  same  bundle  of  destiny  by 
the  evident  ordination  of  an  Eternal  Providence,  and  commit- 
ted by  the  constitution  of  the  country  to  perform  the  duty,  and 


v. 


5 

to  work  out  the  amazing  problem  of  the  advancement  of  the 
white  race,  and  the  civilization  of  the  black  race  under  mild 
and  humane  institutions.  The  negro  race  is  here  placed  in  its  V 
true  normal  condition  of  regulated  slavery.  The  Southern 
States  cannot  occupy  any  neutral  ground  in  the  face  of  an  irre- 
pressible conflict,  which  proclaims  war,  ad  inter  necionem,  against 
them,  as  the  rightful  arbiters  and  appointed  guardians  of  an 
inferior  race.  History  is  philosophy,  teaching  by  example,  and 
its  most  instructive  lesson  tells,  that  in  the  drama  of  this  world's 
affairs,  the  negro  race  acted  no  part,  although  it  is  coeval  with 
our  own  in  the  ages  of  time,  until  letters  patent  were  obtained 
from  Charles  V,  by  Las  Casas,  under  which  the  slave  trade  was 
opened  in  1517  on  the  western  coast  of  Africa.  Afterwards 
the  cupidity  of  England,  and  at  a  still  later  period  the  avarice 
of  Massachusetts  Yankees,  greatly  enlarged  it.  The  trade,  thus 
opened,  found  the  African,  "  like  the  barren  heath  in  the  de- 
sert, that  knoweth  not  when  good  cometh,"  having  roamed  his 
native  wilds  a  barbarian  for  four  thousand  years.  Under  its 
auspices  he  was  transplanted  to  other  lands,  where  his  labor  has 
been  made  to  expand  the  commerce  of  the  world,  and  the  mild 
government  of  a  superior  race,  enabled  him  to  realize  thehlgh- 
est  and  palmiest  civilization  which  his  nature  or  race  has  ever 
reached  or  known.  England,  at  this  day,  with  all  her  boasted 
systems  of  emancipation — all  her  boasted  systems  of  appren- 
ticeship to  educate  negroes  to  liberty,  and  notwithstanding  all 
her  boasted  intentions  of  raising  her  own  supply  with  free  Afri- 
can labor  on  the  Niger  River,  knows  that  the  Niger  will  not  do, 
but  that  the  Nigger  will  do,  on  the  American  cotton  fields,  under 
American  masters,  to  raise  the  great  staple  of  cotton,  which 
is  now  necessary  to  keep  guant  famine  from  her  sea-girt  isle, 
and  maintain  the  permanence  of  her  Throne.  But,  Sir,  the 
demand  for  this  great  staple  of  Southern  labor,  amid  the  strife 
of  contending  States,  and  the  blockade  of  your  ports,  will  com- 
plicate your  embarrassments  and  augment  your  difficulties.  I 
stop  not  now  to  discuss  this  aspect  of  the  subject.  But  in  view 
of  the  magnitude  of  this  question  in  all  its  bearings,  I  have 
desired  earnestly  to  see  this  step  taken  to  preserve  constitu- 
tional liberty,  to  maintain  the  Union  of  the  States,  and  then, 


Sir,  if  found  impossible,  every  citizen  of  our  State  would  stand 
justified  to  his  conscience,  to  his  country,  and  to  his  God.  I 
desired,  too,  Sir,  to  see  a  National  Convention,  with  a  view  to 
enable  the^South,  through  her  wisest  statesmen,  to  lay  down  her 
ultimatum  upon  a  national  arena,  and  to  assert  the  moral  gran- 
deur of  her  true  position  before  the  world,  or  to  fall  with  her 
back  to  the  field  and  her  feet  to  the  foe.  But,  Sir,  it  is  my 
settled  conviction,  that  in  view  of  the  movement  now  inagurated 
North  and  South,  this  question  must  now  be  met  and  adjusted 
permanently  and  surely.  It  is  true  that  some  conservatives 
overmuch  allege  that  Abram  Lincoln's  administration  may  be 
better  and  more  conservative  than  Mr.  Buchanan's.  I  acknowl- 
edge, Sir,  that  it  could  not  be  any  worse  in  startling  corruption 
and  unparalleled  perfidy. 

But  it  is  manifest,  Sir,  that  the  settlement  of  this  question 
cannot  now  be  put  off  any  longer.  In  any  other  event  that 
does  not  look  to  a  re-construction  of  the  government,  the  future 
elections  for  President,  so  far  as  fifteen  States  of  the  Union  are 
concerned,  will  be  a  mere  farce.  Look  at  the  result.  The 
whole  power  and  patronage  of  the  government  will  be  wielded 
to  weld  together  the  numerical  force  of  eighteen  States  forever 
against  us.  Does  not  the  ordinary  rule  of  human  action  forbid 
the  idea  that  Abram  Lincoln,  in  this  hour  of  triumph,  would 
back  down  from  the  platform  upon  which  he  was  elected? — 
Such  a  change,  from  wicked  means  to  wicked  ends,  would  be  as 
sudden  as  that  of  the  mighty  Apostle  on  his  journey  to  Damascus, 
and  that,  too,  in  an  age  when  miracles  had  ceased  to  occur.  Not 
more  surely  did  the  Emperors  of  Rome,  backed  by  their  Preto- 
rian  bands,  in  the  worst  periods  of  their  history,  dictate  the 
succession,  than  would  this  Black  Republican  organization, 
headed  by  a  successful  Black  Republican  President,  breathing 
threatenings  and  slaughter  against  our  institutions,  appoint,  from 
term  to  term,  his  successor.  The  election  of  Lincoln  is  pre- 
dicated upon  a  single  idea,  and  that  idea  is  the  most  stupendous 
falsehood  of  any  age — that  there  is  an  "irrepressible  conflict " 
between  the  hireling  labor  of  the  North  and  the  slave  labor  of 
the  South — that  all  the  States  must  become  either  free  or  slave, 
when  Abram  Lincoln  well  knew  that  it  was  just  as  probable 
that  the  vice-fields  of  Carolina  should  be  removed  to  Massachu- 


setts,  as  that  the  institution  of  slavery,  against  the  great  law  of 
climate,  should  go  there. 

I  be*:  leave  to  read  an  extract  from  the  declared  views  of 
Abram  Lincoln,  which  I  find  in  the  message  of  the  Governor 
of  Virginia.     Mr.  Lincoln  says : 

"I  embrace  with  pleasure  this  opportunity  of  declaring  my  disapprobation 
of  that  clause  of  the  Constitution  which  denies  to  a  porton  of  the  colored 
people  the  right  oi  suffrage.'' 

Can  any  one  doubt  that  it  is  the  settled  purpose,  by  the  ultimate 
extinction  of  slavery,  to  place  the  white  man  and  the  negro  on 
equal  footing  at  the  ballot-box  ?  There  is  nothing,  Sir,  to  equal 
this  delusion  in  the  history  of  any  civilized  people.  The  impos- 
ture of  the  false  prophet,  in  a  dark  age,  is  not  more  surprising. 
There  is  no  parallel  to  it,  unless  you  look  into  the  fictions  of 
romance  and  find  it  in  the  Prophet  of  the  Silver  Veil ;  but  even 
the  deformity  which  it  concealed  is  less  hideous  and  revolting 
than  that  which  is  covered  by  the  black  veil  of  abolitionism. — 
And  amid  the  earth-slides  of  disunion  and  the  destruction  of 
the  government,  Lincoln  may  say  to  his  trained  bands,  as  erst 
did  the  impostor  in  the  story  of  the  east : 

"  Behold  your  Light— your  Star, 

Ye  would  be  dupes  and  victims,  and  ye  are." 

I  believe,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  a  dissolution  of  the  Union  will 
be  a  calamity  to  civilization  and  to  humanity,  and  if  it  should 
occur,  it  is  my  settled  conviction,  that  the  only  plan  which  would 
be  conservative  of  safety  and  social  order  at  home,  and  insure 
some  degree  of  respect  abroad,  is  the  scheme  of  a  united  South- 
ern Confederacy.  Such  a  confederacy  would  be  homogeneous 
in  interests  and  institutions,  and  that  condition  alone  would  be 
a  great  element  of  power.  I  cannot  entertain  for  a  moment 
the  idea  of  a  Middle  Confederacy,  although  it  was  so  ably  ad- 
vocated on  yesterday  by  the  eloquent  gentleman  from  Ashe,  (Mr. 
Crumpler.)  It  would  be  impossible,  Sir,  for  a  Middle  Confed- 
eracy to  sustain  the  long  lines  of  border  on  the  North  and  on 
the  South,  with  custom  houses,  and  perhaps  standing  armies, 
without  the  complete  impoverishment  of  all  the  people.  And 
there  would  be  added  to  all  this  disadvantage,  the  cross-fire  of 
eternal  hate  from  the  North,  while  the  heart  of  the  South,  now 
our  natural  ally,  would  soon  be  changed  from  fraternal  confi- 
dence to  vindictive  rivalry  and  strife. 


/ 


But  the  gentleman  from  Ashe  argued  that  the  slave  trade 
would  be  re-opened.  I  would  deprecate  such  a  result,  but  the  bor- . 
der  States  would  be  mere  likely  to  resist  successfully  such  a 
'policy,  in  a  united  Southern  Confederacy,  than  in  separate  and 
independent  governments.  In  the  event  there  should  be  a  Cot- 
ton Confederacy  and  a  Middle  Confederacy,  is  not  the  proba- 
bility greatly  increased  that  the  interests  of  the  South  would 
prompt  to  re-open  the  slave  trade  %  And  yet,  the  border  States 
could  exert  no  moral  power  to  control  or  avert  it.  With  this 
view,  then,  Sir,  I  must  set  my  face,  as  a  flint,  against  the  idea 
of  a  Middle  Confederacy.  In  closing  my  remarks  on  this  occa- 
sion, I  desire,  Sir,  to  return  my  sincere  thanks  to  the  House  for 
its  patient  attention. 


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